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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24013048">Staring at the Sun</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/awintersrose/pseuds/awintersrose'>awintersrose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Chance Meetings, Eventual Romance, Kato Lore, M/M, Rating May Change, Second Shinobi War, Taki Legends</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:34:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,417</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24013048</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/awintersrose/pseuds/awintersrose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A chance encounter leads to an unlikely bond between heart and soul.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kakuzu/Katou Dan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Staring at the Sun</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Naruto Rare Pair Week - Meet Cute</p>
<p>Special thanks to shipcat for always being an awesome sounding board.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>He looks harmless enough at a glance. A disarming smile, glacier white hair and eyes the color of the most sacred cenote in Takigakure give him an appearance that is almost angelic, but the Kato are anything but that, and most of the shinobi world has forgotten this. Only those of advanced years and experience can remember a time before the Hidden Villages, when the most dangerous of clans were rooted out because they were simply too dangerous to be allowed to live. Then Konoha gave the last of them a home, stirring further contention among the smaller villages and those most at risk when the war drums beckoned and beckon still.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>At the sight of the wounded young man, common sense and the oldest superstitions clash within Kakuzu’s mind. One false move and he might find himself possessed, doomed to rot from within at the touch of one of the deva-touched wraiths, these cursed beings wrapped in human skin. He should just cut the Kato’s throat and be done with it, but some lingering restraint holds him back. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>A cold sweat prickles the back of Kakuzu’s neck as he attempts to fashion a way to ensure he might kill the young man's body before the younger shinobi has a chance to enact the jutsu, but then one question remains if what the old tales say is true: that a Kato without a body can steal your own if they so choose.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It could be long-held rumor, provincial legend, or fact, there is simply no way to know. The clan defies the very laws of nature with their gift, so there is no telling, apart from asking the Kato himself. And for this reason, he keeps this thrice-cursed excuse for a man alive for the moment; perhaps if he can somehow be indebted to Kakuzu they'll manage to part ways on neutral ground.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Kakuzu has no desire to hand over his body to a wandering spirit.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Maybe the stripling has no knowledge of his mostly lost clan's traditions, but in the old lore they held with the idea that a life debt must be paid.  If Kakuzu can ensure he survives, then this might be accomplished. The first logical step is ensuring the Konoha nin doesn’t bleed out.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Stop wasting energy. I can help you but it’ll hurt like hell,” he says, voice gruff.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The younger man’s affable facade slips away and he watches Kakuzu warily. “How do I know you won’t simply kill me?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Because I know what you are, and I don’t like to risk loss where I can help it,” Kakuzu replies.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“And what am I?” the white haired man asks, his sea green gaze sharpening as it ices over with suspicion.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Something I’d prefer not to tangle with. This fight isn’t mine. I have no stake in it.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>At his words, the Kato shifts suddenly, and rather than allow another to see his unease, Kakuzu looms over him, muscles tense, flashing the metal of a kunai at his side and allowing a certain darkness to leech into his chakra. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you want help or not?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dan’s savior is in a word, curious. Tall, dark, and grizzled, he has the appearance of someone from the west, but Dan cannot quite place him with a clear nationality. The stranger’s lack of a shirt displays a well muscled physique that is crossed all over with stitches, and he has the banded indigo tattoos of a prisoner placed in twin lines over both forearms. The same stitches run the sides of his cheeks, partially obscured by the shadow of unshaven facial hair. A bandana pushes oil-dark hair away from his eyes, which are perhaps the most memorable sight apart from the stitches: unrelieved jade green against blood red sclerae. Uniqueness aside, this man clearly maintains the appearance of someone who has little to hide, and even less attention to give to niceties.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Strength is certainly apparent in his physical presence, and he carries himself like a shinobi with the chakra level of an elite jounin or honestly something more. When he threatened Dan, the darkness of his chakra bit along Dan’s skin intensely enough to set the hairs on the back of his neck on end. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He is no average rogue nin, and on any other day, Dan would be inclined to dig deeper, to examine further, but his usual observational skills fail him in the face of blood loss and increasing pain.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The stranger only becomes more fascinating when Dan assents to the help he offers, which is every bit as agonizing as promised, his wounds stitched with keen precision utilizing a process that can only be some form of kekkei genkai. It’s like nothing Dan has ever seen before, but the wounds across his abdomen are swiftly closed and the blood loss is duly curbed, for all that the technique, without anesthetic, nearly hurts more than when he acquired his wounds in the first place.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Unfortunately closed wounds do not equal healing, and Dan knows without even moving that he certainly cannot walk. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You’ll need a medic and rest.” The stranger’s deep voice intones, his strange green eyes fixing on Dan’s as he draws away, threads retreating into his arm.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“That won’t be easy to come by here,” Dan says, clammy sweat beading at his temples as razor blades churn in his gut. His vision swims, blurring, and his heart is beating much too fast.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The last thing he remembers before blacking out is the bracing, all-encompassing pain of being lifted from the ground, into solid arms that could tear him apart as easily as they could rip a paper doll.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When the Kato falls unconscious, for a moment Kakuzu considers killing him, or indeed leaving him here to die. It would be the simplest solution, and he’d still have a chance at catching his bounty on the way to Frost country. Except the themes of old stories ring in his mind, stories he's all but forgotten until now, learned at his grandmother's knee as a small child. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They are the treasure which cannot be touched. The deva-touched Kato transcend the natural order, and through their proximity to the spirit world, they are enabled to master the nine stages of immortality. Those who hold the powers of life and death, they embody the elixir of life, the golden liquid, quite possibly the key to wealth and dominion over the world itself. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Old wives tales and nothing more -- yet another exaggerated reason for genocide, he tries to tell himself, but their gift is still as real as the threads in his body. Kakuzu himself has become such a creature of legend. Who is to say that there is not a shred of truth in the myth? If the Kato brings fortune, then a life debt is an even more lucrative prospect. He’d be a fool if he did not at least try and see what might come of such an opportunity. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The greatest rewards are always accompanied by the highest risks.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Warily, Kakuzu contemplates the pale-haired young man sprawled on the ground before him like a broken doll, bloodstained and unconscious, utterly fragile and still rather close to death. With an aggrieved sigh and a gentleness he tends to reserve only for top dollar artifacts, he slips his arms beneath the Kato’s injured body, lifting him easily to spirit him away from the warzone with a series of stealthy shunshins.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The patch job he’s done on the young man’s injury will hold for now, but there’s no telling how extensive the internal damage really is, or if infection will take over in the end. Abdominal wounds are nasty business, and it won’t be easy to find a medic who will work on a shinobi without asking questions, but Kakuzu has at least one contact in the next township who owes him a favor. The problem is in getting there, as it will be especially troublesome managing this particular cargo. Most of his bounties are collected dead or alive, and he prefers them dead and sealed for safekeeping. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Despite his own misgivings, Takigakure’s Beast has secrets of his own. His movements are soundless through the trees, and his burden seems to weigh no more than a feather. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When he crosses into the border township past sundown, his only concern is the pallor of the Kato’s skin - no longer frightfully pale, but now cast over with the rosy flush of fever.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It’s not a good sign at all.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading! I would love to hear what you think -  Please leave a kudos or a comment if you like &lt;3</p>
<p>Follow me on Tumblr: <a href="http://awintersrose.tumblr.com">awintersrose.tumblr.com</a><br/>Pillowfort: <a href="http://www.pillowfort.io/awintersrose">www.pillowfort.io/awintersrose</a><br/>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/awintersrosered">www.twitter.com/awintersrosered</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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